Mt. Hale (13,494 ft.)

Named by Sierra Club in 1940

"George Ellery Hale (1863-1938), astrophysicist; organized the Kentwood, Yerkes,
and Mount Wilson observatories; director of Mount Wilson Observatory, 1904-23;
internationally renowned for research in solar physics and stellar evolution.
The name was suggested by the Sierra Club. (SC papers in BL. BGN decision, 1940.)"
- Peter Browning, Place Names of the Sierra Nevada

"George Ellery Hale was one of the America's foremost men of science. Born in
Chicago in 1868, Hale was an astronomer whose life work was to expand our
knowledge of solar and stellar evolution. In 1889, he invented the
spectroheliograph, which made it possible to photograph the Sun's
prominences in full daylight. In 1891, his father built him an observatory
attached to their house, known as the Kenwood Physical Observatory. In it
they installed a 12-inch refracting telescope.

Hale was hired by the University of Chicago in 1892 on condition that
the university build a large observatory for him. At an astronomy meeting in
New York during the summer of 1892, Hale heard of a 40-inch lens that was
available. He persuaded Charles Yerkes, a wealthy businessman in Chicago, to
pay for an observatory and telescope. Located in Williams Bay, WI, the
Yerkes Observatory was completed in 1897. Hale was an energetic man,
completely dedicated to scientific research. His need to learn more led him
to found several observatories with ever larger telescopes and ever better
equipment.

In the seven years after graduating from MIT in 1890, Hale
revolutionized spectral observations with the invention and application of
the principles of the spectroheliograph; started the Astrophysical Journal;
brought together, twice, the great astronomers of the world and proved that
the time was right for an astronomical society; built his own observatory;
became the first Professor of Astro-Physics of the University of Chicago and
the first astronomer to be officially called an astrophysicist; inspired the
founding of the Yerkes Observatory, and made possible the means for much
additional work to be produced on the 40-inch telescope by other famous
astronomers. He died in 1938."
- Yerkes Observatory Virtual Museum